Jennifer Fox’s new film My Reincarnation has raised more than $150,000 via Kickstarter, becoming the site’s fourth highest earning film project (and the top funding for a completed film).
The film is 20 years in the making, about a High Tibetan Buddhist Master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and his Western-born son, Yeshi, who was recognised at birth as the reincarnation of a famous master.
Fox, whose past work includes the excellent film project Flying: Confessions Of A Free Woman, says: “I always knew there was a huge audience for My Reincarnation, because I received emails everyday from people who were willing to put up their own money to get the film to their community. As a producer, I feel empowered. Any distributor who tells me that the film doesn’t have a big enough audience doesn’t know the market. I now have proof.”
After Fox had ‘finished’ the film, a co-producer had trouble raising funds for completion costs; Fox thought she might go bankrupt even as the film started on the festival circuit (it won the audience award at IDFA).
“I was terrified. Everyone knows that you can’t fund a film backwards. How do you explain why you still need money for a film that’s already completed and screening at festivals? We owed money for the film’s post-production and music rights clearances before we learned that we lost our funding. Without those funds, the film couldn’t be distributed to television or theaters. It’s a very complicated message to convey.”
But Fox and her team at Zohe Films did convey their message on Kickstarter, and they raised three times the original fundraising goal.
You can see the trailer here, and My Reincarnation’s next festival screenings will be in Sydney and at the New Zealand International Film Festival.
No comments yet